Premier Inn advertise for cleaners at their Hemel Hempstead hotel - who must “speak Romanian”

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Published:18:25Tuesday 03 October 2017

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A major hotel chain has backtracked after insisting that new cleaning staff had to speak ROMANIAN.

The Premier Inn in Breakspear Way placed an online advert for a public area cleaner last week.

Job description for Premier Inn cleaners who must "speak Romanian"

Anyone applying for job was expected to have one year’s experience, be “flexible and reliable,” have “great communication skills,” – and must speak Romanian.

The advert was online for several days, but has now been changed and the firm say it was an error.

Billy Pearson, who spotted the advert on the website www.indeed.co.uk, said: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. We all know what this means – it means that the job is only open to Romanian people. All they’ve done is skirt around it.

“What I can’t understand is how they’ve been allowed to do it.

“I’m a cleaner, I’ve been a professional cleaner for five years, but it looks like I can’t apply for the job because I’m English. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

According to the last government census in 2011 Romanian was the 21st most-spoken language in the UK, with just 0.1 per cent of people putting it as their first language.

The advert has since been amended to list the required languages as Romanian, Polish, Russian and English.

Mr Pearson added: “I’ve worked in pubs and restaurants where the majority of people I’ve worked with have been Romanian or Hungarian.

“It’s made no difference to me whatsoever.

“They should be allowed to do their job, just like an English person.

“But I’ve never met an English person who speaks Romanian.

“You would have to be Romanian to even apply for this job. It’s bloody stupid.”

A spokesman for the Premier Inn said: “As an equal opportunities employer we don’t place language restrictions on any of our roles and this job description, which is now corrected, was unfortunately posted in error.

“We’re sorry for any confusion caused and look forward to welcoming all applications”.